


short pieces

by rgdivine



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-25 09:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22153900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rgdivine/pseuds/rgdivine
Summary: glacey's short pieces -- updates as often as i can, but don't take the word "short" lightly. rating at teen, won't go above that! most will be one-offs, if any are continuations of previous it will be indicated!today's: "the celestials." 684 words
Kudos: 3





	1. i'm fine.

**Author's Note:**

> "i'm fine." 517 words  
> axel, saix, pre-days. rated gen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "i'm fine." 517 words  
> axel, saix, pre-days/com. rated teen

At the end of another of their sparring matches, in which Saïx has predictably crushed Axel, the younger Nobody lays sprawled on the ground, bruised and aching and (not) feeling _so fucking good_ for it, grinning up at his partner as he lets his weapon disappear, looking like he's barely gotten any weight off his shoulders at all, even though he's kicked Axel's sorry tail around the practice room for at least an hour.   
  
Axel's  chakrams are stuck in the floor nearby. He lets them vanish into dust.   
  
"Just beat me into the ground, why don't  ya ?" Says the redhead, looking up.   
  
Saïx spares him a glance. "You seem uninjured."   
  
If he had a heart to care, he might be offended. The emotion is a distant memory, but the banter is familiar and welcome. "Yeah, just my pride."   
  
"You'll live."   
  
Axel scoffs and reaches up. In another time, such a gesture might be indicative of a ploy to pull the other Nobody down to the ground with him, under the guise of helping him up. Saïx, long since accustomed to his hijinks, skips all the fun steps and sits down next to him of his own volition, and Axel rises until he is sitting on his knees, feet tucked beneath him, meeting a stare long since gold.   
  
He doesn't even think to hope that some day it might be green again. All these things are such a fantasy; this is what their (not) lives have come to-- sparring is as close as they can get to being friends again.   
  
If they could ever remember what it was like to be friends, rather than just a memory of a memory, Axel thinks they may be better off. What do they cling to now but a wish for a purpose rather than a purpose itself? It's all meaningless.   
  
He thinks, sometimes, of saying so to Saïx. Oh, wouldn't that just drive him nuts? Saïx clings to a purpose like the terrified cling to the light. If he loses his way, he loses himself, or so much has Axel surmised. His old companion has never had much interest in filling in the details, and its never bothered Axel much to ask.   
  
But he thinks of saying so just because it seems like he has lost something. Saïx seems so-- well, the term might be scared if they are creatures with hearts, but as it stands they are not, and so the term is something else entirely-- of losing his way. If only Axel could remember why. And if Saïx did, and asking him brought a storm even greater than what he witnesses in these sparring sessions, well...   
  
At least Axel would have some entertainment for a bit.   
  
"You look tired, Sai," Says Axel, instead of any of that.   
  
The adjutant looks at Axel for a moment, then averts his gaze. If he couldn't tell the truth, at least he wouldn't look at him.   
  
"I'm fine." There it is.   
  
Axel puts on his face a grin that (not) feels wilted, even to him. A shadow of an effort.   
  
"Yeah. Me too."


	2. empty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "empty." 650 words  
> saix, some xemnas. xemsai vaguely implied? kh2. rated gen
> 
> happy 1/7!

The castle was always too big for twelve of them. What did you do with so much space, even full of (not) people who wanted nothing, less than nothing, to do with one another. Even avoidance couldn’t make the space in the castle fit them. 

After Roxas and Xion's addition, and after the executions at Castle Oblivion, and Axel's return, the castle was stiflingly small. There was nowhere that Saix could go to escape from the disgusting displays that the three of them engaged in-- pretending to be friends. As Xigbar would say, _as if._ Fake friendship, fake people. 

It was bad after Axel left, and Roxas returned to Sora, and... Was there a third? No. It was just them. After Axel left, and Roxas returned to Sora, the castle was emptier than ever, and the only thing that seemed to grow fuller was the swollen moon in the sky, and the void that didn't exist in his non-existence, that Xemnas seemed to take up more and more room in. 

Their numbers continued to dwindle away, and the castle grew emptier. At some point, it became inexpedient to leave, to continue to assign missions, and Xemnas relieved him of his normal duties to become the sole executor of plans. He... 

He fought Axel, and the castle became empty of something else, something that Saix didn't recognize. He became empty of himself. 

(Once, he said that losing Axel would be his worst case scenario. Once, he nearly remembered how they had been friends; when Axel’s presence faded, it was not lost on him that it was his own weapon that bled the lifeblood from him. Still, he could never give him anything: Axel died on his own terms.) 

And then the castle was more full than ever, filled with intruders, children who ran around and more sinister ones who aimed a challenge at Kingdom Hearts itself. Saix had no patience for any of them. He had little patience for anything-- restless, as he'd been since the fight with his old friend. Foolish. Absurd. He'd said it, but it was nothing. There was nothing here for him. 

Xemnas called him, as the castle reached its fullest—it was empty of nothingness and full of intruders and it was time to end the charade. He was truthful when he said he had waited for this. It seemed clear what the outcome would be: Xigbar had just gone, they had both felt it, what with his connection to them both. Of the original twelve, only three now stood. Saix had waited to fade away, and he would meet his fate with something that was almost relief. 

Xemnas beckoned him closer, and he obeyed, wordless. There was a smile on his face that just wouldn't go away. He didn't understand it—how could he smile without feeling? Frequently would Saix disparage Axel for exactly that, when here he was himself doing it, but Xemnas seem unbothered, or else he didn't notice. "Saix," He said, and Saix's eyes settled on the chain of his coat. "I am afraid I must call you for one last sacrifice." The scar on his face itched. His moonstruck state would hurt worse than ever, flooding through his veins like celestial fire, a heart in all but name. One last sacrifice. _If I had a heart..._ This would be the part where he would think that all his (not) life has been a sacrifice. But he didn't, and he doesn't. 

Xemnas’s touch lingered on his jaw, below his chin. He smiled until Sora arrives, he smiled until his Claymore shifted in his hand, calling the energy he had no choice but to release. Xemnas willed it, and the moonlit rage struck through him like a bolt. 

The castle was empty, and it was cold. 

Saix faded with his eyes on a promise that never came through. _Will I never be whole?_


	3. the celestials.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "the celestials." 684 words.  
> isa, lea, subject x, fairytale framed. rated gen

_Once upon a time, the Worlds drifted in_ _blackness, each World a distant, twinkling star. T_ _he Star_ _, like any other world,_ _drifts in blackness, knowing no up nor down nor north nor south, no beginning and no end, no past and no future._

_Then, there was a light, distant and pale, like a Moon_ _. The Star could see nothing in any direction, and the light of this Moon_ _was a beacon that she clung to desperately, calling to him: Come find me, come find me._

_The Moon for his part was a tunnel-vision type of fellow, and he heard the call from the blackness between the worlds and he reached for it. I will find you, he vowed before he even knew it,_ _casting his light into the blackness and unable to withdraw until he’d fulfilled the Star’s wish._

_Maybe this was bad of her to do. Maybe she asked too much, this Star_ _. The Star, as long as she lives, will cast her own ligh_ _t, though she struggles to cling to life, swimming in this muddled blackness._ _But the Moon cannot cast its own light, and the faint glow that it offers_ _cannot stand against the blackness for very long._ _Even still,_ _the Star needs him, and she reaches her hands for him as he dives into the blackness with never-ending determination; having heard her call, he must heed it, and he cannot drift from his task._

_Behind the Moon is the Sun. The Sun, much like the Star, casts his own light, although his is far more brilliant than hers_ _, the kind of light that could never fall long to shadow._ _The Moon has only light enough for the Star and the Sun, although the latter has never needed the Moon’s light;_ _by contrast, the Sun has light enough for many, and is oblivious enough to not notice how much the Moon craves and needs his light, to the point of guarding it jealously when its attentions turn elsewhere. (Maybe the Moon_ _fell so deep into the Star’s call because he wanted a light all his own; her precious remaining light could be his if he found her.)_

_Once upon a time, the Star felt Light again. The theatre of blackness which she had drifted in for time eternal yet_ _stiflingly finite gave way to a flood of light once more, the Sun eclipsed only somewhat by the Moon’s powerful, faint light._

_The Sun and Moon, different though they may be, share one thing: a sentiment, that Light can never fade forever. She takes their hands_ _, reaching blindly through the theatre of not-blackness, feeling her light settle in their minds, haunt their steps._ _The Moon needs her like he needs the Sun; she knows he will not let her down._

_“Got it memorized?”_

_They leave for the moment, the_ _blackness descending again, but the other Worlds don’t seem so distant to the Star now, and she lets herself shed a few tears, smiling into the blackness as her Light,_ _now safely guarded within the Hearts of the Moon and Sun, disappears._

_She knows she is safe—as far as she might travel, they will always be there to bring her back._

_The Problem with_ _entrusting your Light to the Sun is that the Sun has so much blinding Light, that sometimes he cannot distinguish between what is his own and what is another’s; what Light was so important to him, and what he can do without. The Sun_ _is not a_ _shallow creature, he does not throw away Light so easily, nor friendships lose_ _. But so much Light can be overwhelming, and he simply cannot keep track of all of it._

_The Moon, on the other hand, is the perfect being to entrust your Light to. He is desperate._ _The Moon does not produce light so easily on his own, and if you call him into darkness, he will greedily take your Light and defend it with his life_ _._

_The Star feels safe in his Heart, knowing that even as the Moon and the Sun rise and set, she will be found._


End file.
